I have a used 19 inch Zenith TV with built in VCR. The person I got it from said the TV worked fine but the VCR did not. I assumed the TV and VCR worked independent of each other. I turned it on and I see-hear one of the VCR spindles turning and within a few seconds the unit turns off. I can't get it to stay on long enough to see if it does have a good TV picture.
I have googled Zenith and gotten a phone number for 24/7 support. I have not called them yet.
Looking to see if anyone in here might have eperience with a similar model. It seems like the TV would turn on by itself and then if you wanted to record something you could turn on the VCR. When I turn this unit on, I can tell the TV is on, but also the VCR is trying to work because I can see a spindle turning. It cuts itself off after less than 10 seconds. There is no remote. No instructions. All I wanted it for was the TV. Model SLV1340S
Thanks
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The only bright ideas I have are:
Try holding down various buttons when turning it on.
The tape carriage might not be fully in its "tape out" position, or one of the sensors might be messed up in some way.
If you know any electronics, see if you can "jumper" around the VCR circuits.
Take it or talk to a TV repair shop and see what they think it will cost to just get the TV part working.
I used to be a TV repairman in a former life.
Zenith had a thing with their Vertical IC chips that will cause shutdown problems on startup.
Also http://www.archives.repair
Either of these two repairs will run you about $90 for labor...and even though the parts cost about $5.00, your local TV dealer will charge you $20 - $30.
>> I traded for it with some other junk. << LOL
true.....thru a free cycle group for the low income segment of society. I traded 6 old computer power supplies, 2 old apple hard drives, one atari 2600 system with no cords, one Nintendo NES system with no cords, one 13 inch TV, and 8 old VHS tapes all for this 19 inch TV that the other guy said worked except for the VCR. All my items were close to worthless. He gave me the TV to cover my gas to deliver to him since when someone takes what you offer on the group THEY are supposed to pick up.
>> a clear button and a monitor button << The clear button is probably for erasing "timer" serup when using the front panel. I don't know about the monitor button, unless it is like the TV/VCR button.
>> thru a free cycle group ... << Those are nice. But down here we call it "junk pile swapping". Rules are similar to the card game WAR. : D
I took the cover off and looked the insides over thoroughly with a flashlight. I am finding it hard to even see how the VCR part is powered. The power cord goes to a circuit board and from there only some very small wires or smal wire harness (not really a harness but a strip like piece that has a few very small wires inside) goes to the VCR, except a larger wire which appears to be a ground wire. All other wires go to the back of the tube and back down to different areas. There were 2-3 screws missing so someone else has been in here. I see no way to "unplug" the VCR. There may be some wires that I can cut or a harness to be pulled off and hopefully disable the VCR portion of this pain. I have always be skeptical to buy a TV-VCR combo and still am. I prefer separate units
Hi nick,
carefull with the taking its guts out. There are some concetrators (battery like things) that could carry some hundreds of volts in the tv. Although its unplugged you could get electrecuted. In those sets as I have a philips one the remote control plays a great role on turning on and off the vcr. Propably its stuck on the vcr mode as you said.
Take care, and after playing with it get another.
AdKas.
mine was with cutting into a hot wire doing electrical construction, not TV or computer monitor. My right hand found metal and completed the circuit and that made my left hand drop the pliers. I looked at my left little finger and it was burned to the crisp. I said, well, I think I need to go to the first aid office. When i arrived they clocked my heart rate at 234 per minute from the electricity. I lost the finger, and two others on that hand are damaged, one frozen joint and one plastic joint, out of work 3 years. That was 1986. After the accident I spoke to a guy who worked for Duke Power back in the 40's. He was levited above a transformer at 30,000 volts, and it melted nickels in his pocket. He is alive and well today. He also knocked power out in two other towns while he was levited and tripped the power. True story.
Any way, electricity can raise the hair on your arms when you get near.
These TV tubes and computer monitors give me the creeps.
Yeah, sorry to hear that mate..
For me, all I did was put oe of those things that connects wires together, because they were cut, and instead of just joining them, I used it to be safe. When I plugged it in, bang.... My sister a couple of days later done the same thing when she turned it on. uLucky both are okay.
Anyways...It's good you still have your life eh :)
I took the cover off the TV and located three wires-harnesses that appeared to go from the tube to the VCR area or from the circuit board near the power supply to the VCR area. There were three such animals. Then the unit would not turn back on. So, I reconnected these three, one by one, and the unit would not turn back on until all three were reconnected. The unit does the same thing, powers on, then cuts off as the VCR left spindle tries to do it's thing.
The previous owner still says it worked, so if my last effort fails, I'll take it back and if he can get it on, he'll give it back to me. Otherwise I gave him two big boxes of freecycle junk that I was unable to unload on Ebay.
My last effort will be to use my universal remote for various Zenith codes I got from a website. This site said that most TV-VCR combos are controlled by using the VCR controls on the remote, and NOT the TV controls. So they are implying that access to the TV function is thru the VCR controls on the set or on the remote. That sounds backwards though since it seems you would do alot more TV watching than recording, so the TV should be the main part of the unit.
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by: nickg5Posted on 2005-12-10 at 10:18:34ID: 15459416
mmmmmm, a call to Zenith support resulted in them wanting to give me a phone number for a local TV repair shop.......some tech support......I got Yellow Pages for that helpful advice......which is not helpful.